slightly
slight·ly/ˈslaɪtli/adverb
slightly is spelled S-L-I-G-H-T-L-Y, 2 syllables: slight·ly. The wrong spelling people search most is slighly: about 20 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 32 of all searches for the word. Slightly is an adverb meaning “Slenderly; delicately”.
How many letters and syllables are in slightly?
| Letters | 8: S-L-I-G-H-T-L-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: slight·ly |
| In writing | 56 times per million words; the 1,822nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, slighly, about 20 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell slightly?
Slightly is spelled S-L-I-G-H-T-L-Y. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 22 of the searches for slightly in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is slightly?
Slightly appears 56 times per million words in written English, the 1,822nd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce slightly?
- /ˈslaɪtli/
Slightly has 2 syllables, split slight·ly in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-slightly.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of slightly
- more slightly comparative
- most slightly superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does slightly mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adverb
- 1
Slenderly; delicately.
He was slightly built, but tall.
- 2
To a small extent or degree.
He weighed slightly less than his wife who was a foot shorter.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Slightly in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | finement, délicatement , légèrement |
| Portuguese | finamente , ligeiramente, um pouco |
| German | ein wenig, leicht |
| Spanish | levemente, ligeramente |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does slightly come from?
From slight + -ly.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).